Melody Riddle and the Goblet of Fire

Chapter 13: The Unforgivable Curses

There were no more big incidents after Draco's punishing performance as the bouncing ferret, unless that counted Wednesday morning's double Potions lesson with Professor Snape when Neville melted his sixth cauldron. Professor Snape gave him detention for it, gaining a brand new horrific level of torturing the poor boy.

After lunch we made our way to Defense Against the Dark Arts for our first lesson with 'Professor Moody'. Draco was not looking forward to it.

When we got there, Draco had us sit in the very back row so he didn't have to be so close to 'Professor Moody' again. Becky tried to console him, saying that he wasn't allowed to transform him into a ferret again, but Draco couldn't be dissuaded.

I just couldn't wait to see how he would teach us. The real question is... if he is who he's supposed to... what would the real Alastor Moody teach us?

We had all taken out our books just before 'Professor Moody' came in and growled, "You won't need those books."

A practical lesson?

As we returned the books to our bags, 'Professor Moody' took out a register and called out names. His normal eye moved steadily down the list while his magical eye swiveled at whoever said "Here!" He practically growled through gritted teeth as he said Draco's name.

After the last person declared themselves present, he said, "Right then, I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures – you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"

Everyone nodded.

"But you're behind – very behind – on dealing with curses. So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark magic, instead of with cute little creatures."

Becky and I gave small chuckles of laughter. Vincent and Greg sat in the seats in front of us, so we were able to hide ourselves behind them.

"Curses!" he said loudly, as if to cover up our laughter. "They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Parkinson and Miss Bulstrode, while I'm talking."

Pansy jumped and looked at him in defiance. She'd just been writing notes to Millicent and had been handing it to her as he talked.

"Shall I read it to the entire class or will you put it away?" he asked with a smug grin.

"No, Professor," Millicent said, pocketing it in her robes.

"So..." 'Professor Moody' continued as if he hadn't been interrupted, "do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

No one raised their hands.

"My, my, what a pity... surely your parents told you of such spells?" he said, his magical eye looking between Draco and I. "Or perhaps you don't feel like sharing your knowledge? Miss Riddle!"